Score on special sale from the Hire Library and as a Digital Download

Philip the Wanderer

I. Gently rumbling without direction

II. Broadly, surveilling the great expanse

III. Joyfully, jauntily, as if running away from regret itself

Commissioned by Philip Thomas with the support of the Canada Council for the Arts

Although a transcription, Philip the Wanderer may more accurately be thought of as a translation, or adaptation. Using the rhythmic pushing-and-pulling found in the recording of Mandowa II, played by Mozambican musician Zhukake Masingi, this piece was my first exploration of transcribing with fetishistic loyalty the movements of another human being. Using computer-led transcription processes and guided by a practical grounding in the traditional music of South Eastern Africa, the result is a piece which obsesses over the rhythm of the source material, with its danceable irregularity.

Cassandra Miller